Amazon Alexa’s Drop In feature was met with both skepticism and excitement, when it was announced a couple of years ago on the original Echo Show. It basically allows you to drop in on someone without asking first. So you can see how that can be an issue. But it is also pretty helpful, say you want to talk to your kids, and they are at home, you can drop in and talk to them – tell them to do their chores and their homework – with ease.
However, some may want to turn off Drop In on their Echo Show or other Amazon Alexa devices. And well, it is actually a buried setting, so we’re going to walk you through how to do it.
How to disable Drop In
As always, you’re going to want to download the Amazon Alexa app first, and also login. You can download it from the Google Play Store here.
After you’ve downloaded the app, swipe over from the left side of the screen to open the menu.
Next, tap on Settings.
Now, tap on Device Settings which will be the second option from the top.
From there, you’re going to want to select the device that you want to disable Drop In on (which right now, appears to only be the Echo Show or Echo Spot).
Next, tap on Communications.
The second option should be Drop In, below Announcements. Tap on Drop In.
From there you can opt to turn it off, or select My Household which means only the devices in your account can drop in.
And that’s it. The setting is buried, and you may look under the “Communications” setting in the main settings menu, which doesn’t have any settings for Drop In. It’s definitely a bit confusing and Amazon could do a better job with this one, but that’s how it is done.
Wrap Up
The Drop In feature can be a bit of an invasion of privacy, imagine your parents just randomly dropping in on you when you’re unaware. Definitely not something that people are going to like. Luckily, you can turn it off so that others can’t just drop into your home at random times. Of course, Drop In can really come in handy when it comes to your parents, especially if they are older. As you can easily drop in and see how they are doing, and even talk to them. Definitely nice if they live far from you, and don’t get to see your face as often as they’d like.
The Echo Show and Echo Spot are still the only Amazon Alexa devices that really have this feature, which is a bit surprising, as we have seen some other devices come out with Alexa and a screen – like Lenovo’s newest Smart Tab M10 tablet, which docks and becomes an Echo Show. Perhaps this is because a lot of people have complained that the cameras could be spying on them, which is a real concern. But nevertheless, turning off Drop In is pretty simple.